The Indian men’s team felt the absence of star doubles duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty as it suffered a narrow 2-3 loss to China in the Badminton Asia Team Championships group tie here on Thursday.
Star shuttlers HS Prannoy and Lakshya Sen won their singles matches but China fought back with wins in the two doubles contests to make it 2-2. National champion Chirag Sen then lost 15-21 16-21 to Wang Zheng Xing in the fifth match as India conceded the tie.
Already through to the knock-out stage, India finished second in the group, with China taking the top spot.
World No. 1 pair of Satwik and Chirag and 2021 World Championships silver medallist Kidambi Srikanth were rested by the team management as India had already made it to the quarterfinals after the 1-4 win over Hong Kong on Wednesday.
World No. 7 Prannoy started the proceedings with a gritty 6-21 21-18 21-19 win over world no. 16 Weng Hong Yang to put India 1-0 ahead.
In the first doubles, world no. 44 MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila squandered one-game advantage to lose 15-21 21-19 19-21 to Chinese combination of Chen Bo Yang and Liu Yi, ranked 17 places above them.
Commonwealth Games champion Lakshya Sen then thrashed Lei Lan Xi 21-11 21-16 in 40 minutes to again bring India back into the lead but national champions Suraj Goala and Pruthvi Krishnamurthy Roy lost 13-21 9-21 to Ren Xiang Yu and Xie Hao Nan in second doubles as the scoreline read 2-2.
In the deciding match, Chirag couldn’t get India the win.
With both the teams already assured of a knockout berth, the focus will now shift on the quarterfinals.
The Indian women’s team had stunned China 3-2 in their league match to top its group on Tuesday. Prannoy and Weng had earlier faced each other in two finals with each getting the better off the other once. On Thursday, the duo dished out some superlative badminton to keep the fans on the edge of their seats.
Weng opened up 10-0 lead in a jiffy to take the first game 21-6.
In the second game, Prannoy slowly and steadily build up lead at 3-1 and 9-7, before jumping to a 15-11 advantage.
Though Weng clawed his way back to 15-15, the Indian showed nerves of steel to keep his opponent at bay and win the second game 21-18.
The decider was no different as once again lead changed hands with Prannoy 8-5 and 15-12 up at different stages and managed to keep a fighting Weng at bay to close out the match.
Sen, who has slipped to world no. 19, however, didn’t have much problem in prevailing over world no. 35 Lei in their first meeting. The Indian was up 10-5 and kept his nose ahead and earned the bragging rights with a six-point burst.
In the second game, Sen again slowly moved to a healthy 11-7 lead and despite Lei making it 14-16, he moved ahead to seal the contest without much ado.
Results: Men: China bt India 3-2 (Weng Hong Yang lost to HS Prannoy 21-6, 18-21, 19-21; Chen Bo Yang/Liu Yi bt MR Arjun/Dhruv Kapila 21-15, 19-21, 21-19; Lei Lan Xi lost to Lakshya Sen 11-21, 16-21; Ren Xiang Yu/Xie Hao Nan bt Suraj Goala/Pruthvi K Roy 21-13, 21-9; Wang Zheng Xing bt Chirag Sen 21-15, 21-16).
